Sparse Data Association for Low Earth Orbit Tracking

This paper deals with the association problem of sparse data provided by a ground-based radar system for space surveillance. The method we propose and investigate aims at correlating sets of short arcs originating from successive orbits. When orbital states are unavailable due to limited information contained in each report, metric distances are introduced and used jointly with a time window for the gating, which contributes significantly to reducing the number of association possibilities. Resulting tracks should contain enough information for obtaining adequate initial estimates for the initial orbit determination step.